CLEVELAND, Ohio -- How do you get a jump start on your garden, by growing seedlings indoors?
Reader Mark from Sheffield Lake writes that he’s tired of increasing prices to buy seedlings at nurseries in the spring and wants to grow their own seedlings and transplant them into their garden. He’s especially interested in tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, onions, leeks, eggplant and zucchini. “I would probably use my basement as the grow space and need to know about soil, lighting, watering, timing for planting and anything else you could recommend. I have looked on the internet but the writers are all over the place and the advice is not specific to the climate of Northeast Ohio.”
Starting seeds indoors is an inexpensive and easy way to get a jumpstart on the growing season and allows you to grow a wider variety of plants than what’s available at local nurseries. However, in Northeast Ohio, timing is everything. While it’s easy to grow seedlings, keeping them healthy and successfully transitioning them to the garden can be a challenge due to our unpredictable spring weather.
Many gardeners are eager to get their seeds started as early as possible, but starting in January or February will result in large seedlings by May, and those plants require space, warmth, and protection from our cold snaps well into June. Northeast Ohio’s spring temperatures fluctuate, and seedlings can struggle if they’re moved outdoors too soon. Starting seedlings now, in early April, ensures that seedlings are strong but not overgrown and struggling indoors before it’s safe to plant them outside.
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Setting up your indoor gardening space
To grow healthy seedlings, you’ll need a few key supplies:
Seeds: As Mark noted, growing your own plants from seed opens up a wide variety of herbs and vegetables that you won’t find at the store. The options can in fact be overwhelming to a novice.
Two key recommendations are to choose varieties that grow well in Northeast Ohio and that you have use for. After several growing seasons, you’ll have a good feel for what will be both delicious and bountiful in your garden, but until then it will take some trial and error.
The easiest to start from seed in our climate are annual herbs like dill, parsley, and cilantro; vine or bush beans; green onions; and cherry or grape tomatoes, all of which are tolerant of a wide range of summer temperatures and weather conditions and are relatively free from common pests. Other popular garden plants like lettuces, members of the nightshade family like eggplant and peppers, and squashes and cucurbits like zucchini, pumpkins, and cucumbers are more prone to molds and pests that strike suddenly, and combined with their lower yield per plant, make them a high-risk, low reward choice for a Northeast Ohio garden.
Although the Cleveland Seed Bank is on hiatus for 2025 and will not be providing free seeds through libraries, their list of seed varieties offered in 2024 is available online and is a helpful guide to garden plants that grow well in Northeast Ohio
Containers: The cheapest (essentially free) option is any clean plastic containers, such as yogurt cups, with drainage holes punched in the bottom. Others recommend paper egg cartons, but I find they get soggy and fall apart too quickly. After you’ve decided this is a hobby you want to stick with, invest in a silicone seed starting tray, which unlike their black plastic counterparts, will last indefinitely. With their lid and watering tray, it makes for an efficient way to start seeds.
Eventually the seedlings will outgrow the tray cells and need to be “potted on” into larger containers. This is where your years of saving the plastic plant containers can finally pay off, or if that is not an option, you can purchase 4-inch plastic or biodegradable fiber pots. Fiber pots can be planted directly in the ground, but are not reusable and quite a bit more expensive. If you decide to use purchase plastic, thicker pots that will last several years are recommended, and a square shape makes for more efficient layout of your home nursery.
Soil: The internet is full of advice for ways to mix your own growing medium, but for the typical home gardener, any bagged lightweight seed-starting mix will work. A seed-starting mix will have fertilizer and the right components to ensure the right amount of drainage for good root development. Look for a peat-free and organic mix.
Another option is fiber pellets, which are designed to be used with seed starting trays. After placing a pellet in each tray cell, water is added and the pellet expands to fill the tray. This method is great for beginners, especially if you don’t have a dedicated indoor space for gardening, because it cuts down a lot on spilled soil. (Regardless, another key supply is a vacuum for clean-up.)
Warmth: Most seeds germinate best at temperatures between 65–75°F. An inexpensive seedling heat mat can help with germination, but if you are just starting out and watching your budget, a warm location like on top of a refrigerator, inside an oven with an oven light on (just don’t turn the oven on), or on top of a board on a radiator can substitute. Until seeds sprout, they do not need light, so the location just needs to be warm, not bright.
Moisture: By far the easiest method for keeping the soil moist is spraying them gently but thoroughly with water from a spray bottle. If seeds get too much water, they will rot, but they should stay evenly moist until germination. Seeds on a seedling mat or other warm location will dry out quickly, so I check on them twice a day until they germinate (about 7-14 days, depending on the seed.) To trap moisture, any plastic cover can be repurposed as a humidity dome, or even plastic wrap can retain moisture until seeds sprout. Once they have sprouted, remove the cover and add light, which brings us to…
Lighting: In Northeast Ohio, a sunny window will not provide enough light for strong growth. In March 2023, I described my set-up using fluorescent or LED lights positioned close to the plants (about 2–4 inches above) for at least 12–16 hours a day. A shop light will work if you can repurpose or borrow one—special grow lights are not essential for seeds.
Thanks to reader Mark for the question. Next week, we will explore how to care for seedlings until it is time for transplanting. Now, a few gardening events for April:
Plant Sale Listing: Preparation for the 2025 Cleveland.com plant sale guide is underway! If you would like to include your organization’s plant sale, complete the form available at https://forms.gle/BPn8awsEhDpWfXac9 by April 18, 2025.
Chippewa Garden Club Meeting: The public is invited to the Chippewa Garden Club’s meeting on Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 pm in the Brecksville HumanService Building at 2 Community Drive in Brecksville. The guest speaker will be Sean Fenton, ISA Certified Arborist and Ohio Licensed Commercial Applicator for Bartlett Tree Experts. Mr. Fenton will discuss pests and diseases and how to manage them naturally. For more information, visit the club website at www.ChippewaGardenClub.com.
Farm Tour: A farm tour hosted for the Lake Effect Chapter of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) will be held on Saturday, April 26th, 10 a.m. at 7625 Lake Shore Blvd. in Mentor. Attendees to this free event will see examples of no-till mulch farming, solar water pumping, and some animal pest protection techniques. The half-acre of organic field production is mostly committed to fruit-producing perennials. Tour details are on OEFFA’s web site at https://grow.oeffa.org/events/.
Finally, thank you to the readers who emailed during my hiatus. If you have any gardening questions or events to share, email me at sbrownstein216@gmail.com.
Stories by Susan Brownstein
Editor’s note: After a hiatus, we welcome columnist Susan Brownstein back to our gardening column. Thank you to the Master Gardeners of Cuyahoga County for filling in!
The Master Gardener Telephone Hotline is now open. Call 216-429-8200 ext. 1. Leave a message and a volunteer will call you back. You can also visit their website at cuyahogamg.org.